Money : friend or foe?

This could be an in-depth and quite ‘deep’ post but i’ll keep it short and sweet this time!

Money; the bread and butter of today’s society. I won’t tell you how unimportant money is or how chasing the dream of earning megabucks is wrong because it isn’t wrong, it’s all just down to whether you want that to be your life or not. For me, money is naturally important as it’s the resource that we all need for literally everything. But it doesn’t trump everything, and that’s the important thing.

Growing up in a Chinese household; learning the value of money and consciousness of your spending etc is quite a prominent lesson as you could imagine. So believe me when I say that I know too damn well how important money is and what it can do to even some of the (should be) key figures in your life.

I have and I still witness to this day the repercussion of people’s choices, perhaps the worst thing about it is wanting to try and make a change for them but when people make their choices, they have made their choices. Unfortunately, nothing I can do can change that because they continue to make those choices and have no regard to changing their ways. I see more life-changing incidents than the smaller, less significant situations but regardless of which one it is, I believe it’s important to take note and learn. Ultimately, small situations can spiral into bigger ones over time; it’s a slippery slope.

Learning from all that, here’s some key things about money that my intuition and gut have taught me, and hopefully it can help you out as well.

– Don’t get petty over money; don’t go chasing up and arguing with people over like £1, it’s much more important to be generous and forgiving than uptight and stingy (but don’t be stupid and throw £80 to your pal to have a good night either).

– Don’t brag or compete. Whatever you do.. please do not brag about how much money you have or compare with your friends about how far into your overdraft you are (fine to talk about it.. just don’t compare). Firstly, it just makes you sound attention seeking/materialistic and secondly, it’s just really poor chat.

– Lying. If you don’t want to do something, don’t give the usual ”too skint” or ”saving up for…” lines cause you’ll end up spending money on something else and they’ll call you out (or talk about it when you’re not there). Just be honest and frank about things if you’re not interested or up for it, nothing wrong with that.

– Learn from your bank balance. If you see that you have an ‘unhealthy’ balance then don’t go spending what you don’t have. There’s a difference between need and want, remember that. It’s literally that simple.

– Money is just a material. Money is an object, just like clothing. Having more of it doesn’t make you better or more qualified to treat someone a certain way, or act a certain way. Don’t let money get the better of your ego and change your personality and manners.

– Perhaps the most important to me; money will come and go at different times but it’s the people around you that will stick by you through thick and thin. I’m not just meaning family, friends can be just as important as family.

There are more but I feel this covers my personal basis and I could probably go on forever if I continued, so let me open this up. If you feel you have an important lesson or advice about money that you want to share, then please comment and add to this list for the community! We all come from unique backgrounds and perspectives; share what you can offer!